Giulio Gavotti (17 October 1882 in Genoa – 6 October 1939) was an Italianlieutenant and pilot who fought in the Italo-Turkish War where he dropped the world's first aerial bomb from his Taube monoplane over the Ain Zara oasis in Libya.
Aerial bombardment
On 1 November 1911, he flew his early model Etrich Taube monoplane against Ottoman military in Libya.[1][2][3] He took four grenades ("Cipelli"[3]) in a leather pouch, each of a size of grapefruit and weighing about four pounds.[2] Flying at an altitude of 600 feet, Gavotti screwed in the detonators and tossed each munition over the side[1]—three onto the Tagiura (Jagiura) oasis and one more onto military camp at Ain Zara.[2] This event is the first recorded airstrike launched from an airplane.[4][3]
After this and further missions, the Ottoman Empire issued a protest. The dropping of bombs from balloons had been outlawed by the Hague Convention of 1899, but Italy argued that this ban did not extend to heavier-than-air craft.[1]
The oldest known preserved Etrich Taube, in Vienna Technical Museum, is possibly a near-twin to the aircraft Gavotti flew in 1911, as both are said to have been powered with inline four-cylinder liquid-cooled powerplants.
Night mission
Gavotti performed the historically first night mission of a heavier-than-air aircraft. It took place as part of the same campaign in Libya on 4 March 1912.[5]
